Ham radios pick up space weather

Space weather may sound faraway, but solar activity and its effects on Earth’s magnetic field can impact everything from GPS networks to commercial power grids. To understand when space weather will strike, and why, scientists usually monitor it with expensive instruments. But one researcher–an avid ham radio user–realized that space weather events should also show up in records of amateur radio transmissions. Learn more in my story for EARTH Magazine.

One well-known result of space weather are the aurorae, like these in the southern hemisphere. (Credit: Joe Acaba, NASA)